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The Oregon chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers provides a biannual seminar on family law for members of the Oregon State Bar. While the topics are generally similar from seminar to seminar, the last two have taken on a whole new level of complexity, thanks to the recession.

This year鈥檚 event, to be held Friday at the Oregon Convention Center, promises to follow suite, says Robert McCann, the chapter鈥檚 president and a shareholder at Long, Delapoer, Healy, McCann & Noonan in Albany.

McCann, who specializes in family law, says a big part of the seminar is educating lawyers about recent updates to the Bar鈥檚 Family Law CLE publication. Among these changes are adaptations to bankruptcy law and how it impacts divorce cases, and new business valuation issues related to divorce.

Other topics up for discussion include domestic violence and family abuse, the tax aspects of divorce, and how to settle property rights and other issues that arise within unmarried couples. Child custody and parenting plans and child and spousal support are a key area of interest, as the recession has forced people to move to other geographic areas in search of job opportunities, thus complicating child custody and support agreements.

The recession鈥檚 impact on the housing market, and the growing number of homes underwater, is a hot-button issue for family law attorneys as well.

鈥淲ithin the last two years, one of the biggest property issues that we tend to deal with involves houses with negative equity situations. How we deal with those presents a whole new list of problems,鈥� McCann says.

Before the recession, lenders were much more willing to release one of the parties involved in a divorce without refinancing or selling to get their name off a mortgage. Now, just having one parties鈥� name removed from the mortgage as part of a divorce does not release them from financial responsibility for the home.

鈥淟ending practices right now are very, very tight plus all of these houses are upside down, so they鈥檙e not going to release someone from an obligation when the collateral for the home is already missing,鈥� McCann says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been a real learning experience for us in how to deal with this.鈥�